F**k H**kabee

"Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care."

Thus spake Mike Huckabee.

Wonder if good ol' Mike ever read a statistic that didn't jibe with his RightWingNutJob views?For example, this:

The United States enacts a minimum wage (as do some individual states) that tries to establish a floor for what can be paid as a wage by firms. The current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. In 2008, the official U.S. poverty level for a family of 4 was $21,834 ( Census Bureau "Poverty Thresholds"). With a 40 hour week, a family of 4 with one minimum wage earner would earn $15,080, only 69 percent of the poverty level. [...]

Studies of families that stop receiving TANF [Temporary assistance to needy families] show that 60 percent of former recipients are employed—typically at poverty-level salaries between $6 and $8.50 an hour—while 40 percent are not employed. Lack of available child care can well keep single mothers from working as required, for example.

Too bad those manufacturing jobs that once provided employment - and benefits - for US citizens were moved "off-shore" by greedy conglomerate pigs like the Kochs who thus increased their profit margin yet still enjoy generous corporate welfare.

As another critic of Huckabee's mis-spakes observes here:

Huckabee has involuntarily blurted out something certain to resonate with right-wing pathologies, only to try to quickly take back its particulars. When he recently made the false claim that Obama grew up in Kenya, only to later clarify that he misspoke, he merely revealed that he had screwed up in the particular manner in which he blew the conservative dog-whistle, not that he never intended to blow it at all.

Wacky Walker in Wisconsin

What's it all about, Scotty?

Your Koch-sucking sycophant RepubliCon legislators have no sense of humour? Guess not, they're about to make punking a crime.

From here:

Aren't there already laws against fraud and harassment and terrifying people in Wisconsin? Because this sort of makes it look like legislators are primarily motivated by the need to make "making Scott Walker look stupid" a criminal offense.

And just by way of proof that RightWingNutJob derangement is not confined to Wisconsin, Republican legislators in Texas are cracking down on dusky-skinned illegals - unless they're slaving away for below-minimum-wages as domestic workers.

More than just a pretty face

A friend emailed a link to this YouTube about Adele, a young woman whose talent and drive have propelled her from Tottenham to the world stage.

I love her music, but I hated the staging of the music video; why did the director restrict Adele to a chair? Other people play drums, twirl, dance but she is compelled to perform sitting down. I suspect that it was Adele's lack of a willowy figure that figured in the director's choice.

For counter-balance, here is the same song in a performance recorded live before an audience. For purists, an accoustic version can be found here.

For the record, this is what Adele had to say about critics associating her music in with Amy Winehouse and Duffy:

"We got lumped in together, but I don't think we sound alike at all. We were trying to achieve the same things but we're a gender, not a genre."

Wisconsin Update (March 4/11)

A lot has happened in Wisconsin. I'll try to catch interested readers up but first, an emblematic moment of what has to be the most civil civil uprising in history.

Back here I reported on Fux News's hilarious lie about 'union thuggery' -- with the oopsie! of palm trees in the background. (Watch video here.)

Almost instantly, palm trees did sprout in Madison, captured by matt_is_a_nerdj.



To recap a little: the Capitol building was occupied -- perfectly peacefully -- for about two weeks. Before Scott Wanker Walker's budget speech on March 1, the building was mostly cleared -- again perfectly peacefully -- and cops were letting people in on a one-for-one basis. One out, one in. People had to show ID, get searched, be accompanied at all times, etc. Much confusion about which entrances were open to whom, what the new rules were.

The state Constitution has a bit in it about the Capitol and its grounds being open to the people. So, one of the big unions filed an injunction to get it open again. A judge who heard the initial pleadings ordered the building opened.

Which was promptly ignored.

Another judge took up the matter more fully. There were a lot of witnesses so the hearing continued the next day.

The proceedings were live-tweeted by two observers: Analiese Eicher and ACLU Madison.

On the open-'er-up side, witnesses said stuff like: no damage, no mischief, no problems.

On the keep-'er-shut side, witnesses had horrifying tales of intimidation (too many Dem reps wearing orange t-shirts!), debauchery (women and men using the same bathroom!!), imminent danger (buncha live bullets found on the grounds somewhere!!!), and wanton destruction (blue painter's tape holding signs on marble walls!!!!).

That witness claimed that clean-up was going to cost $7.5 million!!!!!!

Hilarity ensued on Twitter. Several people quipped that it would cost that much only if the evil Koch Industries did it on a no-bid basis. Others said that demonstrators had consulted with officials about what kind of tape to use and were told that blue painter's tape was fine.

In other words, totally typical lying bullshit.

Meanwhile, in another lovely piece of political theatre, some Dem representatives moved their office furniture out windows so they could meet constituents who couldn't get in to see them. Remember, this is March in Wisconsin.

Back at the hearings, the lawyers were getting all constitutional in their final arguments. First amendment rights vs. safety and health, blahblahblah.

The lawyer for the union, Peg Lautenschlager, herself a former Attorney General, was quite splendid.

The judge made a sensible decision that the union and demonstrators were able to accept. Building to be open during the same hours as before the ruckus, with some security measures to be negotiated. No more camping out. But reasonable access.

This was yesterday. The remaining occupying demonstrators left last night.

The big drama this morning was whether or not the building would be open and under what circumstances at 8 a.m.

It was!

Watch live-feed from a volunteer here.

No more drums or vuvuzelas though.

The 'Wisconsin 14' (the Dem senators who are denying the ReThugs a quorum on the supposedly minor bill that set this all off) remain on the lam. They've been found in contempt by the remaining senators.

The Senate resolution calls for the Senate sergeant at arms to, with or without force, and with or without the help of any law enforcement officers, take missing members into custody and bring them to the Capitol - any time of the day or night.

Beside the point of how the hell this can be done, there are questions of the very legality of the order.

Gov. Wanker has threatened 1,500 state workers with layoff notices as early as today if the delinquent senators don't return. One tweep pointed out that this is classic spousal abuse strategy: 'Look what you've made me do'.

Today there's going to be a rally with Jesse Jackson in attendance. That'll get up the Tea Baggers' noses.

More demonstrations are planned for tomorrow. No doubt with out-of-state union goons.

Speeches! Drums! Lawyers! Palm trees!

Meanwhile, the corporate feudalist agenda continues to be advanced elsewhere, including Ohio, where the Tea Baggers also have an unstoppable majority.

Excellent piece from Mother Jones on how the Wisconsin Pizza Revolution was organized.

And previous DJ! reports: here, here, here, here, and here.

(updated) Galliano: What not to swear

when your apology is neither sincere nor binding, such as those regularly proffered by Pope Maledict.

John Galliano, probably as the result of prodding by his agent and advice from his legal counsel, produced a waah-waah statement regarding his latest anti-semitic rants, this one recorded and posted on YouTube. His list of regrets was published in the Wall Street Journal (!) and its self-flagellating pose would look good on a member of Opus Dei.

Here's a man who says he was victimized for being and looking different, yet seethes with anti-semitism and gynophobia. His contempt for women evident, in the fashion he creates and the way he displays it on anorectic models who deliberately look like concentration camp survivors. His men's clothing models are well-muscled and buff.



One stylist flew to his defense with a barely coherent statement of her own: "People in fashion all they do is go and see John Galliano theater every season. That's what he gives them. To me, this was the same except it wasn't in a theater or in a movie. John lives in theater. It's theater. It's farce. But people in fashion don't recognize the farce in it. All of a sudden they don't know him. But it's OK when it's Mel Brooks' 'The Producers' singing Springtime for Hitler."

So. A gay bully goy screaming foul and vile anti-semitic slurs is theatre, and it should be celebrated like the comedic work of acclaimed Jewish director∕writer Mel Brooks who parodied white-supremacy first in a clever and brilliant film, and then in a Broadway musical.

As I observed over at ProgBlogger gay persons of colour - alcohol unblocks self-censorship; it doesn't plant beliefs or attitudes in people's brains. Galliano expressed opinions that he held and felt; the disinhibitor of his choice simply loosened his tongue. But Patricia Field may want to use the Twinkie defense to justify her inane comments.

Nathalie Portman is said to be deeply shocked and disgusted by the video (of Galliano's hateful rant), and that "as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, [she] will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way."

Galliano is a venal example of a fashion designer who patently loathes women who don't meet the physical requirements of a perambulating clothes racks for his creations.

Some feminist fashionistas deconstruct the pervasive and persistent gynophobia implicit in the hegemonic representation of a specific ideal female body type which is nubile, thin and malleable.

From here:

Crystal Renn, photographed so memorably in her voluptuous curves by Glamour magazine in September 2009, when her spare tyres (shock! horror!) provoked headlines, and who wrote a memoir about her recovery from anorexia [...] is now a U.S. size two [...] These girls have been used as a smokescreen, so that the gay men who run the industry can continue to peddle the idea that women should look like adolescent boys (it was no coincidence that nerdy, weedy boys walked the runway in womenswear this season). This is their dream, not ours.

Why does what goes on in this elite bubble, this hall of mirrors, matter? Because even though Renn enjoyed fame as a plus-size model, the fact she is now a size [two] reveals that, deep down, women want to be tiny, no matter how much we protest. It confirms the fact that once anorexia nervosa or even yoyo dieting has you in its grip, it is hard to ever be free of it.

Renn has explained her weight loss by saying she has ‘got into hiking’, but then anorexics and those with body image issues always say things like that. [...] Sad for all those women out there who are easy prey to these overpaid idiots. Who will go on a diet, and fail, and binge. Who will worry about fitting into that bikini come summer. Who will look at these impossible, clearly harmful images and find they just don’t measure up, and never will.

[...]one of the women in the audience, Nita Dickson [...] is the mother of Sophie, who died in her 40s from anorexia-related illness. I had become friends with Sophie — who in the end weighed 3st — while working with her on a documentary. I remember sitting talking to her, in her South London terrace house, and gasping when two of her teeth clattered to the floor. This is what these beautiful fashion shows don’t show you, the ugly side of being thin.

Nonetheless, it was his virulent explosion of anti-semitism, and not his ongoing visual assault on women's bodies that got Galliano fired from his job.

Update: Women, in all their gorgeous fleshiness and their wildly different configurations, are more likely to respond to publications and photographs that depict them as they actually are.

From here:

Look's editor Ali Hall: [...] "about five months ago I started using curvy models every week. The response was unbelievable. I've never had anything like it on a magazine. "People were quite emotional about it, saying 'thank you, it's changed the way I dress' and talked about the confidence it gave them.

[...] In Germany, the market-leading women's magazine went further; Brigitte stopped using professional models altogether in January last year, and now uses a diverse range of readers in its fashion pages. Sales have gone up 4%. "It wasn't a strategic decision, it was a natural development," says editor-in-chief Andreas Lebert. With the boom in fashion blogging, and sites where street style is celebrated, it isn't just designers and magazine editors who can create trends. "The traditional image of a model to show women what they should look like has become redundant.

[...]Will any of this really change the way women are portrayed in fashion magazines? Ben Barry, a PhD student at Cambridge University, thinks eventually it will. His research, to be published in a few months, is on whether female consumers are more likely to buy something when an advertisement (and by extension, a glossy magazine fashion spread) features a model who is more reflective of them.

Using mocked-up fashion adverts, Barry surveyed 3,000 women in the UK, US and Canada, "and the vast majority of women significantly increase purchase intentions when they see a model that reflects their age, size and race. If you speak to consumers on the street about my research, nobody is surprised – consumers are light years ahead of the fashion industry in that they want to see diversity.

So. Will haute couture featuring emaciated models garbed in esoteric, absurd and Grand Guignol-flavoured schmattas persevere? Probably just as polo does, as a form of entertainment for the very rich and really vapid.

Fetus Lobby FAIL!

Further to that fetal heartbeat stunt . . .

FAIL!

State lawmakers in Ohio have seen ultrasound images of two fetuses as proponents of what would be the most stringent abortion law in the nation pushed their proposal.

The bill would ban abortions after the first heartbeat can be medically detected.

Two young mothers were given ultrasounds in a packed room at the Statehouse as part of a House committee meeting Wednesday. The heartbeat of a fetus at 15 weeks gestation was easily detected. The heartbeat in a fetus of nine weeks gestation was difficult to detect.

Or as Towleroad put it: pretty much undetectable.

Maybe the woman with the 9-week fetus should have gone for the public rape transvaginal ultrasound.

h/t Towleroad via Antonia Z.

Wisconsin Update (March 2/11)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker delivered his much anticipated/dreaded budget yesterday amidst huge controversy about who was allowed into the chamber to hear it. (There were rumours -- yet to be confirmed -- that Tea Bagger supporters were being spirited into the building through tunnels.)

Canadians will not be surprised to read the Democratic reaction, including the petty bit about where it took place (bold mine).

The location for the Democratic Assembly leaders' response to Gov. Scott Walker’s budget address was symbolic of how little regard their Republican colleagues must have for them.

They were forced to use the office of the minority leader, Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha). It’s not a small office, but with about a dozen news outlets present -- half of them setting up TV cameras -- it was extremely cramped and stuffy. Several reporters sat on the floor, and others had to listen in from the next room.

Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee) apologized for the small quarters and then added, "We weren’t allowed access to a larger room."

With such little power, what chance do the Democrats have in beating back against Walker’s budget, which calls for severe cuts to education and human services?

"It’s a very perilous time," agrees Rep. Kelda Helen Roys (D-Madison). But, she added, "Walker has managed to do in one fell swoop probably what no Democratic politician could have, which is awaken the voices of the people."

The main strategy -- or hope -- Democrats are banking on is that the already historic mobilization against Walker’s agenda will continue and grow. Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) said: "This budget is so overreaching there are going to be many more citizen groups outraged. These are such deep cuts in health care and education.... This is not a Wisconsin people will recognize."

He's slashing funds for education and health care, increasing funds for prisons. As one tweep put it: 'He wants us poor, sick, ignorant, and scared.'

In typical NeoCon double-speak, Walker claimed that cutting money for cities and municipalities gives them the 'tools' to get their budgets under control.

In a 'take-that-you-pinko-commie' fit of juvenile pique, he also cut the state's recycling program.

To which, tweep FreyaFoust replied:

WI kills recycling program. Please send all used toilet paper to Koch Industries corporate office for recycling.

Koch Industries owns Georgia Pacific, huge manufacturer of paper products including Dixie cups. Good background on them in The New Yorker.

And in a move the so-conned won't like, he plans to close the female juvenile detention centre and mix the bad boys with the bad girls. Given that he's also axed funding for contraception, that oughta go well.

Other sorta random observations from your obsessed humble observer:

In a show of balls, solidarity, and disgust: Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney said he pulled his officers from barring the Capitol's entrances because he didn't want to put them in the 'position of being palace guards'.

Fucked News is doing its usual sterling job of making shit up reporting. First, a reporter who first claimed he had been 'punched' by a demonstrator, had to recant a little when the video demonstrated that the punch was, at worst, 'a pat'.

Same reporter was on the air when Fux aired footage of 'union thuggery' -- except, whoopsie! -- there were palm trees in the background.

Other Fux claims that 'union thugs' were bussed in are neatly spiked by zinovy08, who said: 'The bused in union thugs brought palm trees with them to Madison, WI.'

And, of course it continues. The hearing yesterday to open the Capitol to its people, as stipulated in the state constitution, is continuing today. It is being live-tweeted by two people: Analiese Eicher and ACLUMadison, who's having twitter problems at the moment. I'm following and will update.

In the meantime, watch working people and unions fight back.



Like Cons everywhere, these ReThugs are simply bullies. And pretty quick with the 'thug' word, all things considered.

UPPERDATE: BoingBoing confirms: Tea Bagging ringers snuck in through civil defense tunnels.

Oops! (updated)

That MASSIVE tinkling sound you're hearing is Blob Blogging Wingnut wetting HERself in excitement over a tactic that the anti-abortion group Faith2Action will exploit when it appears before the Ohio House Health Committee.

From here:

According to the AP [...] a pregnant woman will be "brought before the committee and an ultrasound image of her uterus will be projected onto a screen" with the heartbeat shown in color. Faith2Action president Janet Folger Porter says the intent is to show legislators who will be affected by the bill. If that's the case, aren't there sentient beings, like, say, the people that will have to raise it for the next eighteen years that could use actual words to testify?

What's next? Sperm testifying about how sad they are never to have made it to an egg?

The source for the above is New York Magazine, not The Onion.

If The Fetus©™ fetishists and catholic zealots BBW and John 'Sperm Holocaust' Pacheco had their way, all menstruating females would be forced to collect every single drop of their monthly flow and bring it to a government inspection station. No woman would escape the ideologically-motivated scrutiny of her reproductive apparatus, also known as the ovaries + the uterus.

Oh. Wait.

Update: my virtual roomie provided a link to pharyngula's post about those rightwingnutjobs and something jumped out at me.

Early ultrasound examinations will primarily detect the presence of the extraembryonic sac, not the embryo itself. It's too small. Around 5 weeks, you might be able to see a fuzzy small blob with a flutter that is the beating heart, but that's about it, and you do have to use transvaginal ultrasound to pick it up — that is, you have to insert the ultrasound probe deep into the vagina.

Got that? In order to get the maximum blobby F/X, the ultrasound probes would have to be inserted deep in the pregnant women's respective vaginas. No sacrifice too great for BABEEZ! it would seem. Betcha most of those male RepubliCon Ohio legislators will get their rocks off on that. In fact, that's probably why they've allowed this histrionic display.

Wisconsin Update (March 1/11)

I'm torn, I'm torn. Got things to do, but want to continue to witness the awesome people power on display in Wisconsin.

So, for those who might also be obsessed interested, here are a few links.

First, an interview with someone who's still occupying the Capitol and has been from the beginning.

Next, an illuminating read on why the Right is attacking unions, ACORN, and Planned Parenthood.

And here's some very good news. The tide may be turning in favour of the unions.

By a modest margin, more say they back Wisconsin’s public employee unions rather than the state’s governor in their continuing dispute over collective bargaining rights. Roughly four-in-ten (42%) say they side more with the public employee unions, while 31% say they side more with the governor, Scott Walker, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey, conducted Feb. 24-27 among 1,009 adults.

To catch you up on overnight developments: There are about 100 people still inside. More wanted to get in but weren't allowed, so they pitched tents outside. They were then told they couldn't pitch tents there. Tents were taken down and about 50 people slept outside in February/March in Wisconsin with just sleeping bags and blankets.

They are using pizza boxes from donated pizza for insulation.

Those Sconnies, as I now know to call them, are some tough mo-fos.

UPPERDATE: Judge has issued an order to have the Capitol open to the public! Effective immediately. The people are winning. A little.